First Fright
by Natalie Beck
Summary: We all know how Danny first got his powers, but not the exact story behind it. Well, here's how it all happened...
1. Chapter 1

**Important Note! **Hello everybody! I have been an avid watcher of Danny Phantom since it first premiered, but I haven't written a fanfic until now. Actually, I wrote this one a while ago, but I never uploaded, and since I wrote this way before Memory Blank even came out the way Danny got his powers is a little different from what actually happened, but I hope you all still read it. So, for sake of this story, we're just going to pretend that, that episode never aired. Kay! Anyways, without further ado, I give you my first Danny Phantom fanfiction. Enjoy!

First Fright

Danny Fenton was just your ordinary, everyday, fourteen-year old boy. He had an older sister named Jasmine, Jazz for short, and a father and a mother who loved him. There was only one thing that wasn't normal about his life—his parents. They were two geniuses obsessed with catching deceased paranormal beings, in other words, ghosts. It's all they had ever thought about. Both of them were always down in their lab, which used to be the basement, all day creating strange devices for hunting and catching ghosts made out of common objects. It had been amusing for the first few years, but now it was just plain weird.

It was a bright, sunny Saturday morning and Danny had just woken up. He was downstairs at the kitchen table eating his cereal. He was about to put another spoonful of cornflakes into his mouth when he heard a loud shout come from below the kitchen, making him drop his spoon onto the floor. He growled in frustration and went underneath the table to retrieve it.

"Aha!" Danny's father, Jack, yelled as he ran up the stairs followed closely by his wife, Maddie. "We've done it! And those people down at PI said it couldn't be done!"

Danny had come up from under the table, but had unfortunately hit his head on it. "PI?" he asked as he rubbed his now throbbing head.

"Paranormal Investigations," Maddie informed him. "Your father and I went down there just last week to talk about the molecular recombination of metaphysical morphology."

An ecstatic Jack threw his pointer finger up into the air even though he had no idea what his wife just said. "Right!" he said enthusiastically.

Jazz had just entered the room, looking like she did every Saturday morning. She was wearing her pink bathrobe and her fuzzy blue slippers that she shuffled around in. On top of that her usually nicely combed hair looked like a rat's nest. She walked over to the table, leaned against a chair, and yawned lazily, "What's going on?"

"Your mother and I just had a breakthrough!" their dad screamed.

Jazz winced at the loud sound. "Don't tell me. You found a way to punch through time and space and created a portal to another world so you can bring ghosts here instead of keeping them as far away from us as possible," she said sarcastically.

Danny, Jack, and Maddie stared at Jazz with dazed expressions. "Actually, yes," Jack responded a little disappointed at not being able to explain his new invention.

"I'm right?" Jazz said with a surprised look. "I mean, of course I'm right. I'm always right."

"Big surprise," Danny muttered into his cereal.

"What was that?" Jazz whipped her head around and hissed at him.

"Nothing," he mumbled.

"Children, no fighting over breakfast," Maddie interrupted.

"Hey, I have an idea! Why don't we all go downstairs to see our new invention," said Jack, his enthusiasm obviously back. Danny and Jazz looked at him and before they were even able to respond he bellowed, "Great!" and dragged the pair downstairs with Maddie bringing up the rear.

The lab was filled with normal lab equipment like beakers and test tubes, but it also had an array of strange objects, including the biggest one stuck right into the middle of the wall.

"Is that the portal?" Danny asked, pointing to the door-like mass in the wall.

"Yep!" his dad responded proudly. "Haven't got a name for it yet, but it's sure to be big once we get it working."

"You mean to tell me you don't even know if it works yet?" Jazz asked with her hands on her hips.

"Of course we know it works. All we have to do is plug her in and this baby will be running like a charm," he answered.

He and Maddie ran over to two large orange cords lying on the ground. Jack picked both of the cords up in either hand.

"Here we go!" Jack said, holding them about an inch apart.

Maddie held her hands together in hope and Danny and Jazz stepped back with their hands over their ears, afraid of what was going to happen. Jack plugged the two cords together and everybody held their breath. They stood there for a few moments, but all they got was a small crackle of electricity.

"But… but… but…" Jack said, looking as if about to cry.

"Oh, honey, it's ok," Maddie said, putting a hand on his shoulder, although she seemed quite disheartened too. "We'll try again another time."

"It should've worked," he cried. "Why didn't it work?"

Jack dropped the cord and the pair of them walked up the stairs in disappointment, Maddie still rubbing his back.

"How 'bout we go out and buy that coffee pot you've been wanting to turn into a ghost liquefier. Will that make you feel better?" Maddie asked. Jack nodded in response and followed her up the stairs. "We'll be back in a few hours!" she called.

Jazz folded her arms and lifted an eyebrow. "Humph, knew that wasn't going to work," she said cynically. "When have mom and dad ever made something that actually worked the way it was supposed to?"

Danny thought for a moment. "How 'bout that flashlight that emits that ectoplasmic goo?"

Jazz shook her head. "Remember? That was a side effect. It was supposed to shoot a beam of light that disintegrated ghosts, but since there's no actual ghost to test it on…" she shrugged her shoulders. "I just wish for once we had normal parents. Then maybe I'd be able to live through life without humiliation and torment."

She turned around and trudged over to the stairs, but she momentarily stopped and flipped her head around towards Danny. "Just so you know, I'm going over to Lila's in a little bit."

Danny nodded slowly, still a bit groggy. "Got it—wait, who?"

Jazz rolled her eyes at her little brother. "You know, my friend that I've known for three years that I drive home every day from school and comes over almost every other weekend?"

Danny just stared back at her with wide quizzical eyes.

"Ugh! Honestly!" she exclaimed vehemently. "It's like none of my family know that I have a life outside of them!"

Jazz turned back around in a huff and rushed up to her room, probably in search of a brush to comb out the knots she kept tugging at. Danny had no idea who she had been talking about. He never once remembered Jazz having a friend named Lila ever come over. He just shrugged to himself and chalked it up to a short attention span.

Danny looked back at the machine. It would really have been something if it had actually worked. He felt so sorry for his parents that he wished he could find out some way to help them.

He tilted his head slightly to the side. "Maybe I could just take a peek inside," he said out loud to himself.

He walked over to a rack where two jumpsuits hung—one for him and one for Jazz. Their parents had gotten each of them one last Christmas, though they had never been used. He grabbed his white suit with a black belt, gloves, and collar off of the hanger. He began to pull the suit on as he hopped over to the doors of the portal on one foot. Danny zipped up the outfit and then pushed a red button to the side of the portal. The doors instantly opened with a buzzing sound and he peered inside. Within the portal it was pretty much just a deep hole in the wall with some sort of ray at the end. He walked over to one of the sides of the walls where there were some exposed wires.

Danny took one look at the wires and shook his head. "I have no idea what I'm doing," he said grabbing hold of a clump of wires and unfortunately, a few of them came loose. "Oh, great!" Danny moaned, trying to place the wires back into their correct spots. "I think that's right."

He stepped back and examined them for a minute. "Yeah," he nodded in an attempt to reassure himself.

Danny sighed. There wasn't really much he could do. He turned around to leave, but his foot snagged on a cord lying on the ground. He would've fell flat on his face if the wall hadn't have been there. He flung his hand onto the wall, which stopped him from falling, but he had accidentally pressed a small red button labeled 'on'. Red and white lights flashed and sirens boomed. The yellow striped doors of the portal began to shut.

"Oh, no!" Danny screamed.

He ran for the doors, but he was a moment too late. They closed shut, sealing him inside. Danny started breathing hard. He didn't know what he was going to do.

"Jazz, help!" he yelled, but no matter how loud he screamed she wouldn't have been able to hear him. "Oh, God," he whispered.

He backed up against the wall, but a second later he would regret doing that. An electric shock ran throughout his entire body. A neon green light flashed before his eyes, and his brain, his skin, his bones, everything felt like it was on fire. Then he seemed to go completely numb. He collapsed on the floor and passed out.

Well, that's the first chapter of my story. I hope everybody enjoyed it, and if you didn't, well, I tried. Please R&R! It's much appreciated!


	2. Chapter 2

I just want to thank all of you for your reviews. It's greatly appreciated. But anyway here's the next chapter. Oh, I forgot this last chapter, but... 

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom, unfortunately.

Chapter 2

"Ugh!" Danny groaned as he sat up in the middle of the lab. "What happened?"

All he remembered was being inside the portal and the doors closing. But then how did he get out? Danny tried to stand, but everything just seemed to spin. He put a hand to his forehead and moaned. He felt strange—colder. He looked down to the floor, but saw something wasn't right. The glove on his hand was white, instead of black. In fact, his entire outfit seemed to have switched colors so that majority of it was black.

"Huh?" He examined his entire outfit. "That's weird."

He walked up the stairs and out of the lab. He was going to just go up to his room, but then he passed the bathroom. _Can't hurt to throw a little water on my face_, he thought to himself.

He opened the door to the bathroom and flicked on the light. He turned towards the mirror and almost passed out again by what he saw. Danny Fenton didn't seem to be Danny Fenton any longer. His hair, instead of its usual black, was now snow white, and his once blue eyes were now electric green.

He stared at his reflection for a moment, not believing what he was seeing. He placed his hands on the sides of the sink, but then his arms turned invisible and fell through. Then he turned invisible altogether. Danny started to scream.

"What the heck happened to me?" he said, freaking out.

He seemed like he was about to hyperventilate, but then he took a few deep breaths. "Ok, ok," he said in a weak attempt to try to calm himself down. "It's all right. I'm just dreaming. All I have to do is wake myself up."

He slapped himself hard across the cheek. "Oww!" he yelled. "Ok, so I'm not dreaming," he gulped. "Now what am I going to do?"

He looked down at the sink for a moment, thinking. He couldn't tell his parents. They probably would think he was a ghost and just try to catch him. Jazz would think he was crazy.

"Tucker!" he said out loud. Tucker was his best friend. He would help him.

Danny stepped out of the bathroom, grabbed the phone lying on its cradle, and then returned to the bathroom sink he had been standing over. He began dialing in the well-known number to Tucker's house. After two rings someone picked up.

"Hello?" It was Tucker, but once Danny heard his voice he froze.

"Hello?" Tucker tried again.

"Tucker, it's Danny," he replied in a squeaky voice.

"Danny, what's wrong? You sound weird."

"I don't know if weird would begin to describe it," he replied as he took another glance of himself in the mirror.

"What?"

"Never mind, just—" Danny accidentally phased through the receiver and dropped it on the ground.

"Danny, you there?"

"Yeah, sorry. I…dropped the phone."

"What were you saying?" asked Tucker.

"Oh, right, um, meet me in the park, the west side, in fifteen minutes."

"The west side? But there's nothing over there."

"Just meet me there," Danny answered with a small sigh.

"Did you want me to bring Sam?"

"No!" Danny cried into the receiver, thinking of his other best friend. "She can never know."

"All right."

"Fifteen minutes."

Danny immediately hung up. Tucker was worried. If it was something he didn't even want Sam to hear, it couldn't be anything remotely good. He hung up the phone, grabbed his jacket, and made his way down to the park.

* * *

Danny walked out of the bathroom slowly, placing the phone on a nearby table. He began walking towards the door, but then he came to find out that he wasn't walking, but floating. His legs had disappeared and had been replaced by a dark gray mist. He screamed again.

"What happened to my legs?" he said staring down at his non-existent legs.

He urged himself to go forward and to his surprise he did exactly that. Danny didn't know what he was anymore. Was he a boy, a ghost, or what? He tried to fly up higher into the air, but he accidentally flew too high and hit the ceiling. He went pummeling to the ground and landed with a loud thump. His body glowed white for a second and two bright rings appeared around his middle. One traveled up his body and the other traveled down. Danny was so terrified he wasn't even able to scream; he had no idea what was happening to him as the top ring went up over his head. To his surprise the two rings had returned him to his normal appearance: black hair and blue eyes—and the lab suit went back to being mostly white. Danny looked at his hands; the gloves were white and they were solid.

_Maybe I was just seeing things,_ he thought hopefully to himself. _I must have._

"Jazz!" he called, but no answer came. "Jazz!" he tried once more, but then he vaguely remembered her saying that she was going out.

_She probably already left._

He shrugged his shoulders and proceeded to take off the jumpsuit. He left it lying carelessly on the floor next to the front door and then left to go meet Tucker.

_What am I going to tell Tucker_, Danny thought to himself. _I can't tell him that I was hallucinating that I had ghost powers._ _I'll just tell him it was just a joke. Yeah, just a practical joke. That'll work,_ he thought as he chuckled worriedly to himself.

Danny walked over to the door and opened it. The sun had gone away and it had begun to rain. Danny ran out the door and walked on towards the park. After a few steps he started to break into hysterical fits of laughter. He couldn't believe what he had thought. He kept blinking away the rain and his tears from laughing so hard. He closed his eyes, opened them, closed them, and opened them again...either it was his imagination or he was shrinking. Danny looked down to see that the bottom half of his body was invisible and he was sinking through the pavement. He grabbed a nearby lamppost and pulled himself up and out of the ground. Once again a white light flashed and the two rings appeared, and he turned back into the white-haired ghost he was before.

"Great!" he said, looking around, hoping that no one saw him.

Not a soul was present. He started running down the street, but then running eventually turned into flying.

"I have to get higher or turn invisible or do something!"

He tried to concentrate really hard. Suddenly, he felt himself lift higher into the air until he was way above the buildings.

"This is kinda cool," Danny said a little shakily as he flew through the air, faster and faster.

He looked down towards the ground for the park and spotted it, but he began to pass over it.

"How the heck do I stop!" he yelled loudly, but a second later he came to a sudden halt in midair.

"That works," he muttered unsteadily as he tried to keep his balance in the air. He turned around and then began to fly lower to the ground, but the closer he got the faster he seemed to go.

"Uh oh!" Danny said as he crashed into a tree and tumbled through the branches and on to the ground.

Danny laid on the ground for a few minutes in a sort of daze. "Gonna have to work on that."

"Danny! Danny, is that you?" Tucker's voice rang through the wooded park.

Danny's heart dropped. He didn't know if he could let Tucker see him, but he had to. "T…Tucker," Danny managed to squeak out.

"Where are you?" Tucker called.

Danny could just make out Tucker's red hat and glasses. "Look lower," he said, still lying on the ground.

Tucker made his way through the trees, until he met Danny. "Danny?" he asked with an astonished look on his face.

"Yeah," Danny sighed.

"Why are you lying on the ground?"

"Because I fell from the sky," he responded slightly calm.

"And how do you suppose you got up there?" Tucker asked sarcastically.

"I flew."

"Right."

"I did!" Danny retorted. "Isn't the way I look proof enough?"

"What are you talking about?" Tucker asked slightly confused.

"What am I talking about? My hair is white, my eyes are radioactive green, and—" Danny immediately cut himself off when he saw his visible, normal hands. "Hey, I'm back again."

"Uhh, Danny are you feeling ok? You're acting really weird."

"Yeah, I'm fi—"

"Tucker!" Sam's voice traveled through the woods.

"Sam," Danny turned to Tucker and glared at him. "You promised!"

"Tell her that. She wouldn't leave me alone until I told her where I was going. You do know she was over at my house when you called?"

"Tucker!" her voice came again.

She was really close and Danny was beginning to sweat. All of a sudden he felt a cold blast of air and saw a white flash of light form around him. Tucker stared at Danny with wide eyes.

"Oh…my…God!"

Danny held out his hand to Tucker to help him off the ground. "Tucker, help me up."

Tucker just continued to stare. His mouth hung open slightly and then he said, "What are you?"

"It's me, Danny! I'll tell you everything later, but we have to get out of here." He continued to hold his hand out.

Tucker looked at the outstretched arm and then back at the direction Sam's voice had been coming from. He turned back to Danny and helped him up off the ground. The both of them began running through the woods in the opposite direction of Sam. They had only been running for a few minutes before they had finally lost her. The pair had emerged into the back of a warehouse where a bunch of shipping crates stood.

"That was a close one!" Danny said, trying to catch his breath.

Tucker was still staring at him in utter shock. "What happened?" he whispered in a sort of daze. "What are you?"

Danny furrowed his eyebrows in frustration. "Now, don't think I'm crazy or anything, but I think I'm a—I'maghost," he blurted the last part out quickly--too quickly for Tucker to understand.

"A what?" he asked, confused.

"A ghost, I'm a ghost! Satisfied now!" he screamed in frustration.

"A ghost?" Tucker said, disbelieving.

Danny nodded his head in response.

"Just because your hair is stark white and your eyes are glowing green, as freaky as that is, it doesn't mean that you're a ghost."

"You're right," Danny said. "I'm only half ghost. How else would I be able to return to my human form?"

"Uhh, Danny, I think you've had a) way too much sugar or b) not enough sleep," said Tucker, still not ready to believe him. "You must have gone through a lot to get that costume together. It looks almost real."

"It's not a costume! It is real!" Danny screamed. "To be honest, I thought the same thing as you. But that was until I started doing weird things."

Tucker's mouth dropped. "You mean like that?" he said as he pointed at Danny's body. Danny had been leaning against a stack of crates and had slowly begun to sink into it. His head was now the only visible part of him.

"Oh, darn it! Why me?" Danny moaned as he struggled to get back up.

"This is really freaky," Tucker said, stating the obvious.

"You have to help me!" pleaded Danny as he ran up (or glided up again) to him and grabbed his collar.

Tucker now totally believed his friend's story. "How am I supposed to help you?"

"I don't know, but you have too! I don't know what I'm going to do!" he said starting to get hysterical.

"All right, all right! First of all, let go of my shirt and calm down." Danny let go of his collar. "Second of all, stop floating! You're creeping me out."

Danny looked down at his legs, but this time they were visible, and he just seemed to be hovering off the ground. "Sorry," he said as he landed.

"This is so weird," Tucker said, "but so cool!"

"Cool! You call being a half-ghost, freak of nature who can fly, turn invisible, and walk through things cool!"

"Yeah," Tucker responded sounding as if he thought Danny were crazy.

"Then why don't you switch places with me?" he growled.

Tucker shook his head. "No can do. I have enough going for me already. Besides, I don't need ghost powers to make me cool. I've already got enough of that," he said, pretending to slick back his hair.

Danny rolled his glowing green eyes. "Whatever you say, Tuck."

They sat there for a minute in silence. Then Tucker all of a sudden blurted out, "So, what else can you do?"

"I don't know. I'm still trying to figure this out myself," Danny responded anxiously.

"Let's see. We know you can phase through things, hover—"

"Fly," Danny said interrupting Tucker.

"What?"

"I can fly," he responded wearily.

"Are you serious?"

"Would I joke at a time like this?"

"I don't know. A time like this has never happened before."

Danny slapped his own face in utter disbelief of Tucker.

"I'm sorry, but this is just—" Tucker paused.

"I know," Danny said.

Tucker had taken a seat on the box next to Danny and was looking at him intently, a question obviously on his lips.

Danny growled at Tucker, beginning to get a little annoyed by him. "What is it?" he asked.

"I was just wondering why don't you want to tell Sam," Tucker asked his now ghostly friend, "I mean, we've been friends, for like, forever."

"I don't know," Danny sighed softly, "I guess I just don't want her to think I'm a freak."

"Hello!" Tucker replied as he waved his hands in the air wildly. "She's a Goth! She likes things that are strange and unusual!"

"You're right," he answered him with another sigh, "but I don't want to tell her just yet. Telling you was hard enough."

"Yeah, why is that?" said Tucker with a frown on his face.

"Why is what?" asked Danny confused.

"Why did you think Sam would freak out, but not me?"

Danny just shrugged in answer. "I honestly have no idea, Tuck."

Tucker still continued to frown at him, but then his frown deepened; Danny looked like he was getting paler and paler by the moment.

"Look, I know this must be kinda hard on you, but maybe this is just a temporary thing. I think you should just go home and take it easy," Tucker replied trying to comfort his friend.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Maybe I'll just go to sleep and hope this nightmare ends."

"Uhh, Danny, it's not even lunch time. You just woke up."

"I know, but I'm just really tired." Danny wearily put a hand to his forehead. "And maybe I'll just sit here a minute." He slunk down to the ground and leaned up against a crate.

"You all right?" asked Tucker concerned. "You look beat."

"I'll be fine. All of this has just taken a lot out of me."

"Come on. Let's get you home," Tucker said as he grabbed hold of one of Danny's arms and pulled him up into a standing position.

"And how do you expect us to do this? I'm pretty sure it's not normal to see a glowing guy with white hair and green eyes in a hazmat walking down the street."

"What? Your parents do it every day—well, all except for the white hair and green eyes thing."

"Tucker," Danny hissed, getting irritated at his jokes.

"All right, all right! I'm sorry. So, how did you get to the park?" asked Tucker.

"I flew half of the way and the other half I wasn't glowing."

"You'll just have to turn back to normal again," he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, which it pretty much was.

"Tucker, if it was that easy I would have done it by now."

"You have to concentrate."

"I can't," Danny moaned. "I can barely stand."

"You have to at least try, Danny. It's the only way," replied Tucker, trying to sympathize with his friend.

"All right, I'll try." Danny clenched his fists together and concentrated as hard as he could, but it didn't take much until there was suddenly a flash of light and he returned back to normal.

Danny looked at his normal body in surprise. "That was easy."

"See. I told you, you could do it," Tucker said as they both started to walk back to the main street, Danny leaning on him for support. "Let's get you home, buddy."

The trip back to his house took twice as long because of Danny's inability to walk on his own, but they eventually made it there. They just felt lucky that Danny didn't accidentally turn back into his ghost form on the way there. Tucker opened the door, expecting Danny's parents or least Jazz to be there.

"No one's home," Danny answered before Tucker said anything. "Just help me up to my room."

Tucker had to practically pick Danny up to get him up the stairs, but lucky for him Danny was pretty light. He supposed it had mostly to do with him being half ghost now. Once they had gotten up the stairs, Tucker took him to his room and put him on his bed.

Danny laid his head on a pillow and opened his eyes half way. "Tuck, I—" he started, but he passed out.

Tucker walked out of the room and closed the door silently, leaving Danny to get some sleep.

* * *

All right! There's chapter two! And remember R&R, but if you're already reading this partI'm guessing you've read the story... so just review! 


	3. Chapter 3

First of all, I just want to say that I'm really sorry about not updating sooner. I've been a little busy, and then I was just feeling lazy, but then I was thinking about how bad I would feel if I didn't update this for my poor readers. I know that I hate it when people don't update in forever. So, I decided that I should probably update this. And once again, thank you to all my readers and/or reviewers (it should be both for everyone!)

Disclaimer:...

Me: Do I have to do another one? I already did one!

Lawyers: (huddle together, chat for a second, then nod their heads in agreement)

Me: Alright, alright! I do not any Danny Phantom at all. (Turns to lawyers) Are you happy now?

Lawyers: (nod their heads again)

Me: Fine! (Grumbles) But one day I will, and when that day comes... muwhahahahaha!

Lawyers and Readers: (stare wide-eyed)

Me: Hee-hee. Sorry. Anyways, on with the story!

* * *

"_Ha, ha, ha!" Danny heard laughter coming from behind him._

" 

_He was running down a long corridor of seemingly identical doors, but the one at the end of the hall was glowing a fierce green._

"_Run!" hundreds of voices yelled, breathing down his neck._

_Complying with the screaming voices, he ran faster, but no matter how fast he ran the door never seemed to get any closer, just the voices._

"_You can't escape us!"_

_A strong burst of desire along with a bit of adrenaline welled up inside of him. Danny ran as fast as he could and to his relief the door handle came within his grasp. When he turned the knob and opened the door he emerged into a glowing blue portal, but in front of him were a bunch of green ghosts. They were all laughing at him. He tried to leave, but when he turned back to the door he found that it had disappeared. He looked back at all the ghosts. They immediately stopped laughing and turned to see a figure gliding towards them._

_Danny was about to scream out to tell the ghostly figure to leave him alone, but he suddenly got a very strange feeling from it. It was a ghost, yes, but this one was different. Danny couldn't quite put his finger on it, but this ghost gave him a good feeling inside._

"_Who are you?" Danny asked the shadowy specter softly._

"_Who do you think I am?" it asked in a voice that had a slight echo to it and sounded oddly familiar. _

_The ghost suddenly stepped forward into the light, and Danny gasped at what he saw; it was the ghost version of himself._

"_I'm you," it answered in Danny's own voice._

_Danny looked at the phantom unsure of what to do or say, but then he answered, "You're me." He said this as more of a statement than a question._

_The phantom nodded and then glided closer over to him. "That is, if you accept me."_

_Danny didn't know why, but he had this feeling deep down inside that he had to accept the phantom as a part of him. He answered the being in front of him with a curt nod of his head. The phantom gave him a small reassuring smile and laid a hand gently on his shoulder. What happened next Danny hadn't really been expecting. All of a sudden the ghost went intangible and dove inside of his body. Danny felt as if he had just been plunged into a frozen lake, but for some strange reason it didn't feel bad at all. In fact, it felt great._

_Behind closed eyes he could see a bright light flash around him, but then, without warning, his body began to shake violently._

"_Danny!" he could hear another voice beckoning from far away._

"_Danny!"_

"Danny!"

Danny woke up with a start to see his mother, father, and Jazz looking down over him and his dad trying to shake him into consciousness.

"Sweetie, are you ok?" his mother asked, stroking his face.

"Yeah, I'm fine. What time is it?" he asked.

"11:30," Jazz answered.

"It's night? I've been sleeping all day!" he exclaimed in disbelief.

"Oh, you didn't let me finish," Jazz said. "It's 11:30, Sunday morning."

"Sunday morning!"

"You've been asleep since we got home about lunch time yesterday," his mom said.

"We thought you were in a coma or something," Jazz replied, almost looking disappointed, but really, what else would you except from a sibling?

"But now that we know you're ok, I can show you this," his dad said bringing out a coffee maker from behind his back.

"Is that the liquefier?" Danny asked.

"No, we couldn't seem to get that to work," his dad said glumly. "But we did make a ghost DNA extractor," he continued, the vigor back in his face. "I call it the Fenton Tracer. It's able to trace a person's DNA through something as simple as a strand of hair or a piece of skin and then is able to decipher whether that person is possessed by a ghost or not; not to mention it also makes a great cup o' joe!" he added with a small wink and then said, "Here, let me show you. All you do is pull out a hair from someone," he pulled out a hair from Danny's head.

"Ow!" Danny exclaimed, rubbing the spot his hair had just been pulled from.

Jack continued on, "Put it in the filter like so and push the button." He pushed the 'on' button after tossing the hair in and the modified coffee maker began to drip results into the glass cup.

"DNA confirmed," a female voice came out of the Fenton Tracer. "Ghost presence affirmative."

Danny's eyes grew large and he began to squirm under his parents' and sister's looks.

"Hmm, that can't be right," Maddie replied.

"Yeah, there must still be some bugs to work out," Jack said, yet again disappointed.

Danny put a hand to his forehead in relief and sunk down into his bed.

Jazz shook her head sadly. "What did I do to deserve this?" She followed their parents out of Danny's room.

"Ok, I'm going with this wasn't a very elaborate dream," he said once his family left. "Why does everything happen to me?"

He quickly pulled back the covers, jumped out of bed, and went to the bathroom. There was no point in him getting dressed. He still had on his clothes from the other day, although they were a bit wrinkled, but Danny didn't seem to care. When he got to the bathroom he took out his toothbrush and began to brush his teeth. Half way through the morning ritual his hand went intangible and the toothbrush fell to the ground with a clatter.

"Argh!" he growled. "I can't even brush my teeth!"

"Is everything all right up there, sweetie?" he heard his mom call.

"Uhh, yeah, just brushing my teeth," he managed to answer.

"Ok. Well, Tucker's on the phone."

"All right."

Danny picked up the toothbrush, laid it on the sink, and ran out of the bathroom without even bothering to rinse now foamy paste out his mouth. He picked up the phone in his room and pressed the 'on' button.

"I got it mom!" he yelled.

He put his ear to the phone and once he heard the click of his mom hanging up he said, "Tuck?"

"Yeah," Tucker said sounding calm and casual.

"What's up?"

"Oh, nothing. I just had the strangest dream last night. Get this, you were a ghost and you had all these cool, freaky powers."

"Uhh, Tuck, that wasn't a dream."

There was silence on the line for a moment. "It wasn't?"

"No."

…more silence…

"Was there any other reason you decided to call?" Danny asked, trying to move away from the subject.

"Yeah," Tucker responded after a minute. "I just wanted to make sure you were still coming to the movies with Sam and me at 12:30."

"The movies?" he exclaimed. "I forgot. I can't go there."

"But Danny, we've had this thing planned for a month. Sam's had it planned for two. You know how much she's been wanting to see it and if you don't come—"

"But I can't."

"Danny—" but Danny hung up before Tucker even got to finish.

* * *

There was a long line in front of the Multiplex Cinema. On top of the Cinemas on a very large billboard was the picture of a red space rock and a high tech looking ray gun next to the words Red Asteroid Part V. In the line stood Tucker with a black-haired girl, sporting purple stockings, a plaid miniskirt, black shirt, and a pair of black combat boots to top it all off.

"I hope Danny gets here soon," she said looking at the overhead clock, which read 12:20.

"Uhh, I don't know if Danny's gonna be coming, Sam," Tucker responded.

"Oh, he's coming," she said as she crossed her arms.

"How do you know?"

"I just called him 10 minutes ago. He tried to make up some lame excuse about him not feeling well, but he's not weaseling his way out of it this time. I mean last time when Part IV came out, he said that his grandmother had just decided to drop in. How convenient," replied Sam as she balled up her fists in a threatening manner.

Tucker took a small step backwards, afraid that he was going to end up being the object of her anger. "Actually, his grandmother did drop in and trust me, you never want to meet her," he answered, shivering at the thought of what happened when he had met her.

"Whatever. All I know is that if he knows what's good for him, he'll show up."

At that moment they heard Danny's voice call, "Tucker, Sam!"

"Told you he was coming," Sam said.

Danny ran up to them. He looked very pale, like he was about to throw up at any minute.

"Danny, are you ok?" Sam asked.

"I all ready told you I wasn't feeling very well," he grunted weakly.

"Right," she said, still not believing him. "Come on, let's go before they run out of seats."

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the Fenton house, the Fenton Ghost Portal opened up and a large, green blob with four arms and many sharp teeth emerged from the swirling mass. It looked around with its beady, red eyes and then floated up through the ceiling.

* * *

Sam and Tucker walked into the movie theater with Danny bringing up the rear. Tucker dropped behind to check on Danny.

"That faking sick act is really good—almost realistic," he said, sounding amazed.

Danny groaned, "I'm not exactly faking it."

Tucker frowned in concern. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, it's just the fact that my intestines are deciding to make a huge knot in the pit of my stomach, that's all," he said sarcastically.

"Sorry."

"Ah, I'm sorry," Danny apologized as he shoved his hands into his pockets. "I'm just worried, that's all. I don't mean to take it out on you."

"Don't worry about it," said Tucker.

"Guys, over here," Sam called, pointing to three empty seats.

They trudged up the stairs and sat down in the vacant seats. Right after they sat, the previews started, and after a few minutes, the movie was finally ready to begin.

"It's starting, it's starting!" Sam squealed in delight.

"Uh-huh," Danny said, nodding his head. The truth was, he really had no desire to see this movie or its four preceding ones. The only reason he went was because he didn't want to hurt Sam's feelings.

After about fifteen minutes of the supposedly action-packed movie, Danny's snores started to echo through the theater.

"Danny," Sam said nudging him in the ribs.

"Ow!" Danny said as he seemingly woke up. "I'm awake!"

His elbow suddenly went through the armrest. He pulled it out and it immediately went back to its solid state. Lucky for him Tucker was the only one who noticed. Everyone else was too hooked on the movie.

Danny went to close his eyes again, but a loud rumbling sound shook the entire room.

_The special effects are pretty real_, Danny thought to himself. But when he looked up at the screen, he noticed that the actors were just talking as if nothing had ever happened.

"That was weird," he thought out loud.

"Tell me about it," Tucker responded and then he added, "No, really, tell me. Anything's better than hearing the cheesy dialogue in this movie."

Danny all of a sudden felt really cold. His mouth fell open a little and a line of blue smoke emitted from it.

"What was that?" Tucker said, staring at Danny.

He just shrugged his shoulders albeit a little tensely. The rumbling came again. All of a sudden a very large, very green blob came out of the screen. A lot of people screamed, but no one ran, thinking it was all part of the movie.

"This is so awesome!" Sam shrieked. "This is nothing like Part IV."

The green blob roared and looked right at Danny. Danny, having figured out that this wasn't part of the script whispered, "Oh no." But then it turned its head a little and looked directly at Sam. It reached out one of its four hands and grabbed Sam around the waist.

"Help!" she screamed, obviously figuring out that this wasn't a movie at all.

Chaos erupted and people began running for the doors. Danny and Tucker just stared on in horror as the green blob laughed in triumph. The doors of the movie theater slammed shut as the last of the people exited the room.

"We have to help her!" Tucker exclaimed. His eyes grew big and he turned towards Danny. "_You_ have to help her!"

"Me?" he squeaked. "But what am I gonna do?"

"You're the one with ghost powers. Use them."

Danny looked over at the monster that was holding a screaming Sam. He had made up his mind. Danny narrowed his eyes at the monster.

"I'm going ghost!" he yelled.

He didn't know why, but the little catch phrase seemed to comfort him.

Danny clenched his fists with determination and instantly turned into his ghost form. He floated off the ground and flew straight for the ghost's face.

"Let her go!" he screamed as he punched it in the jaw.

The ghost let go of Sam as it reached for its throbbing jaw.

"Sam!" Danny screamed.

A gray mist suddenly replaced his legs and he zoomed straight for the falling Sam. Right before she hit the ground he caught her. He laid the unconscious girl down, but before he was able to check to see if she was all right, the ghost pulled Danny by the leg and flung him into the air. Danny saw that he was heading straight for a wall. He closed his eyes, preparing for impact, but it never came. To his surprise he had gone right through it. He opened his eyes, shocked at what he had done, and went straight back for the ghost. He kicked the ghost in the stomach and it fell over.

"Go, Danny!" Tucker yelled from next to the drowsy Sam.

Danny tried giving it a few well placed jabs and kicks, but no matter how hard he tried or how many times he hit it the ghost wouldn't leave.

"Tuck, I don't know how much longer I can keep this up. This ghost won't go down," Danny panted as he hovered above his friends.

Tucker thought for a minute and then a light bulb clicked. "I got it! Lure that thing over to your house. Maybe you can use one of your dad's inventions to get rid of it!"

Danny nodded his head weakly in response. He wasn't very sure on how well his dad's inventions actually worked, but he really didn't have any other choice.

"Hey, you stupid overgrown piece of mold, get over here!" he mocked poorly.

But despite the weakness of his taunt, the blob roared in anger and followed Danny out of the movie theater. They soared over the buildings until they reached his house. Danny put on a spurt of extra speed and zoomed through the wall into his parents' lab. To his relief no one was in there, but his relief was short lived when he heard the ghost roar right outside.

"What am I going to use?" he thought out loud as he dug through all of the strange contraptions.

The ghost suddenly flew through the ceiling and was obviously seething with anger. Danny grabbed the invention nearest to him, which happened to be a vacuum cleaner, or at least something that looked like a vacuum cleaner, and pressed the 'on' button, but unfortunately it didn't turn on. The ghost started to laugh maniacally.

"Great," Danny said still trying to turn the vacuum on, but to no avail.

The ghost flew straight at him and Danny quickly dodged him, but not without hitting the ground with a hard thump. He looked down at the ghosts feet, or tail, and saw that the vacuum had been unplugged. He flew for the plug, but the ghost grabbed him with two arms and grabbed the vacuum with another. Danny struggled to get free, but he couldn't seem to loosen its grip. The ghost laughed again, but to Danny's good fortune the ghost tripped over the loose vacuum cord and fell to the ground, releasing Danny and the vacuum. He flew over to the vacuum and plugged the cord in.

"Say goodbye, slimeball," Danny said as he held the vacuum out in front of him. "I hope this works," he whispered to himself, flipping the switch on.

The vacuum immediately turned on and the ghost got sucked inside. Danny removed the bag and looked over at the open portal.

"So, that's where you came from," he said, eyeing the swirling mass.

He attached the bag to a dispenser on the side of the portal and released the ghost back into the 'Ghost Zone'. Danny reattached the bag to the vacuum and then took off for the multiplex. When he went back inside the theater he saw Tucker still next to Sam trying to wake her up.

"Is she all right?" Danny asked concerned as he landed on Sam's other side.

"I don't know. She won't wake up," Tucker replied.

Suddenly, Sam began to stir.

"Sam?" Danny asked.

She opened her eyes, but only half way. "Who are you?"

Danny frowned. "It's me, Danny. Ya know, your friend Danny Fe… uh, Phantom." He had forgotten he was still in his ghost form.

"Phantom?" she whispered in a dazed state, before she passed out again.

Tucker looked at him with a smile and a raised eyebrow. "Phantom? How original. I'm sure she won't figure that one out."

"Oh, come on. Give me credit. I was pressed for time."

Tucker nodded his head in agreement. Danny closed his eyes and a moment later a bright light traveled over his body and returned him to his normal self.

"You're getting better at that," Tucker praised.

"Thanks. Come on. Let's get Sam home," Danny said as he and Tucker picked her up.

The moment they emerged from the theater doors a crowd swamped them.

"Connie Palazzo from Amity Park Weekly," a female reporter said as she shoved a microphone into Danny and Tucker's faces. "Is it true that there was really a ghost?"

"Uh…" Danny started, but another reporter put a microphone in his face.

"Was it all just an elaborate prank?"

"Yeah," he responded quickly, trying to shove his way out of the mob. "It was just a prank."

He and Tucker managed to elbow their way out of the crowd. They ran out of the building and hid behind the ticket stand. The mob ran past them and down the street in the direction they thought they went.

"Come on," Danny said as they emerged from behind the stand and took off towards Sam's house.

* * *

Alrighty! That's the end of part 3. Hope you liked it. Just so you guys know, next chapter will be the last one, so you'll only have to wait for me to update one more time. As always, R&R! (and no, that does not mean rest and relaxation!) See ya lata! 


	4. Chapter 4

I just want to take a moment to say thank you to all of my readers and to also say that I'm sorry for the delay. I have a very good reason though. Reason: My sister's cat just had kittens, but when they started stinking her room up she decided to stick them all in the room that has the only computer with the internet. Needless to say I did not want to go in there. It smelled so bad I no longer wanted to go on the computer anymore, but then I thought of my poor readers and decided I should really probably update. So, I sucked it up and breathed out my mouth for the five minutes I was in there typing this up. (The other five was spent knocking four annoying kittens off the chair and desk.) Ok, well, I've ranted enough. Here is the last chapter.

* * *

Danny had spent the rest of the evening over at Tucker's house, since Sam's parents had kicked them out saying that she needed rest, but him and Tucker called every half an hour to see if she had waken up. They kept this up until about 9:45, which was when Danny unfortunately had to go home—that stupid curfew.

When he got to his house he quietly opened the door and began to walk up the stairs.

"Danny!" he heard his dad yell.

"I'm not late," Danny said, trying to defend himself. "It's 9:55. You can check my watch!"

"Never mind about that," his dad came into sight. He was wearing one of his weird ghost-zapping inventions on his back. "Where's the ghost?"

"What?" Danny frowned.

"You were on the news. You saw a ghost. Where is it?" he said, holding the tube of the invention in between his hands.

"Oh, that. It, uh, wasn't a ghost," he lied. "There was just some malfunction with the wires. That's all."

"It's ok, Danny. You can tell me. I won't let that ghost get away," Jack told his son with a very determined look on his face.

"Right," Danny responded. "He just…disappeared."

"I knew it—that tricky little devil! Don't worry, Danny. I'll get that ghost if it's the last thing I do. Maddie!" he called.

Maddie came running up the stairs. "What is it, Jack? Is it a ghost?"

"You bet your bottom it is. To the RV… I mean, the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle!"

His mom and dad ran off in search of their ghost.

Danny shook his head. "I think Jazz might have a point about our family," he mumbled to himself.

* * *

The next day at Casper High School Danny was at his locker pulling his chemistry book out.

"Hey, Fentina!"

Danny moaned. He knew that voice anywhere. Dash Baxter, resident bully and football captain, ambled up the hall in his usual jock manner.

"Saw you on TV yesterday. That ghost must have really scared you," he sneered. "You know, I feel so bad for you, I think I'll help you out."

Danny's eyes grew wide in astonishment. "You will?"

"Yeah, here you go," he said as he picked Danny up, threw him into his locker, and slammed the door shut.

Dash and the few friends that were with him walked away laughing.

"I should have seen that coming," Danny said to himself glumly.

"Danny?" he heard Sam's voice on the other side.

"Yeah."

The locker opened and he came tumbling out of it to see Sam and Tucker.

"Don't tell me—Dash," Tucker said.

"Um-hm."

Sam scowled. "Won't that guy give it a break?"

"This is Dash we're talking about," Danny responded.

"He's got a point," replied Tucker as he turned to Sam.

Sam had her arms crossed over her Chemistry book. Leaning against the lockers, she sighed with a thoughtful expression on her face.

"What's up with you?" asked Danny.

"I was just thinking about yesterday when we went to the movies. I saw something really weird…and wonderful," Sam answered as she sighed again.

Danny's stomach dropped clear through the ground. "Uh, yeah, too bad about that electrical problem. It was starting to turn into a pretty good movie," he lied, trying to steer clear of the subject, namely him.

Sam furrowed her eyebrows. "Hey, what are you hiding?"

"What, me? I'm not hiding anything," he said beginning to sweat.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "If there's one thing I know, Danny Fenton, it's that you're the worst liar in the world."

"It's nothing really," Tucker said, cutting in. "It's just that he really doesn't like Red Asteroid that much. Actually, he hates it."

Sam turned to glare at Tucker.

Tucker gave a small yelp. "_I _don't hate it! Just him!"

Sam turned to Danny with a glare on her face, but then her expression softened. "Ya know, Danny, you could have just told me. I would have understood. Besides, I had a feeling you didn't like it anyway."

He let out a breath that he wasn't aware he was holding in.

"What? That's it?" Tucker exclaimed.

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked with narrowed eyes.

"I thought you were going to shish kabob him for hating the movie that you so desperately love."

"Why would I do that?" she replied with a raised eyebrow. "Everyone's entitled to their own opinions. I'm not gonna get angry because someone doesn't like something that I do."

"Well, in that case, I'm not a big fan of Red Asteroid either," he answered casually.

"What!" screamed Sam.

Tucker and Danny jumped back in surprise; they were sure they had seen a forked tongue momentarily slip out of her mouth, but then Sam let out a small laugh. "Boys—they're so gullible."

They both stepped back to where they were with a smile on each of their faces, but then realization hit Danny.

"Hey, wait a minute! If you knew I didn't like those movies why'd you make me sit through them?"

"So, uh, that's what happened yesterday? An electrical problem?" she asked, avoiding Danny's question.

Tucker nodded, while Danny glared.

"Oh, because I kept hearing the news going on and on about ghosts."

They both gulped and Danny began to sweat again, totally forgetting that he was angry at her.

"But I guess that would explain what I saw, well, my hallucination, I guess. You'll both think I'm crazy, but I dreamt there was this huge ghost with four arms that picked me up right out of my seat. I was scared to death, but some guy with white hair just came out of nowhere and saved me. You know, come to think of it, he kind of looked like you, Danny," she said pointing at him.

"Uh, yeah, I definitely got white hair and bright green eyes. Let me tell you..."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Hey, I never said that he had green eyes."

"Uh, lucky guess?" he responded, sweat dripping down his neck.

"I guess," she answered, but her eyes were still narrowed. "Ya know, the only other thing I remember about him is his name—Phantom."

"Phantom? That's it?" Tucker asked.

"Yeah," she said slowly. "Why are you guys acting so strange?"

Danny and Tucker looked at each other. "Strange?" Danny asked. "We're just freaking over a—a test! Yeah, a test—in chemistry."

"They're real mind numbers," Tucker added.

Sam seemed to accept their answer, because she just nodded her head. "That dream was so real I can't get it out of my mind."

Suddenly, a loud ringing sound filled the hallways and at that moment Danny had never been happier to hear that bell. The trio walked off to their chemistry class quickly, in fear that they would receive yet another tardy. Luckily, they were able to make it before the door shut.

"Have a seat, children," Mr. Seiver said as he closed the door, cutting off any stragglers from getting inside. "Now, let's take roll, shall we? Abner, Lorraine."

"Here," a red head in the back answered.

"Baxter, Dash."

"Here!" he yelled as he threw a paper wad at Danny.

Danny growled. He had the paper wad in his hand, ready to throw it back at Dash.

"Fenton!" Mr. Seiver shouted as he looked at Danny with his cold eyes.

Danny phased through his chair and tumbled to the ground. Lucky for him Mr. Seiver had looked back down at his roster right before he had 'fell'. Danny looked around at the other students to see if anyone had noticed the incident, but strangely enough no one had.

"Here," replied Danny in a slightly squeaky voice as he got back into his seat.

Mr. Seiver finished taking roll. "Now, children, I hope you've all studied for the big test today. It's worth 25 of your grade." There was a loud murmur among the students.

"What?" Tucker exclaimed out loud. "There really is a test? But I didn't study!"

"Thank you for sharing your problems with the rest of the class, Mr. Foley. We all love to hear your little mishaps."

Tucker leaned back into his chair with his arms crossed and grumbled something incoherent under his breath, but it obviously wasn't anything pleasant.

Mr. Seiver smiled that sick sort of pleasant smile teachers give right before they do something horrible. "Today, instead of doing the written part first we'll do the lab part of the exam." All the students moaned.

Danny leaned across his desk towards Tucker and Sam. "There's a lab part to this test?"

Sam just looked at him and nodded sadly; Tucker was too busy trying to cram as much knowledge into his head as possible in the thirty seconds they had left before the test began.

"Now, everybody get into groups of two or three and get to work on the assignment."

Naturally, Danny, Sam, and Tucker worked together. They sat on the stools behind one of the lab tables. Sam began to gather all of the necessary items, while Tucker and Danny got out paper and pencils.

Sam, hands full of beakers and test tubes, held a beaker out to Danny. "Hold this for me, will ya?"

"Sure." Danny went to grab the beaker.

Sam, thinking he had his hand right on it, let go of the glass container, but Danny's hand phased right through it and it dropped to the ground, shattering into a million pieces. Everyone looked up at him.

"Sorry," he said as bent down to pick up the shards. "I'll clean it up."

Once he had cleaned the mess up he began to work again, but not before he dropped another beaker.

"Just a little clumsy today," he laughed nervously.

Unfortunately for him, that was not the last time he dropped a beaker that day. After the eighth one Mr. Seiver finally walked up to Danny.

"Mr. Fenton," he said, about ready to pop a nerve, "please, have a seat and get started on the written exam."

"But what about the lab?" he asked from the ground where he had been picking up more glass shards.

"I suppose I'll have to find you an alternate assignment. Now, go sit down and I'll bring you the test."

Danny walked over to his desk and sat down glumly. Whatever the alternate assignment was he knew it was not going to be easy.

The written test was actually not as hard as he expected. He was just glad he had studied a bit on Friday before all the weirdness started.

Once Danny had finished the test he laid his head on his desk, falling into a light sleep.

Twenty minutes later the bell rang and everyone emerged into the halls.

"Jeez, Danny, what was wrong with you today?" Sam asked him once they were outside at their usual picnic table.

"I guess I'm just a big klutz today," he responded with a little laugh.

He looked over at Tucker. Tucker had seen him phase through each and every one of those beakers and he just gave Danny a weak smile in response.

Sam ignored her salad and looked at Danny curiously. She knew that something was up with him, but she just didn't know what. She decided to give it one more try.

"Danny, are you sure you're feeling ok?"

"Look, Sam, I just—" but he was cut off when he felt a shiver run down his spine and the blue smoke once again came billowing out of his mouth.

Sam looked at him startled. "What was that?"

"Uhh… what was what?" he asked, starting to sweat again as the blue mist appeared a second time.

"That!" she exclaimed as she stood up and pointed at his mouth where the remains of the smoke were disintegrating.

Right at that moment a blue ghost with red eyes, looking much like a cross between a moving guy and a robber, floated over the lunch area. At the sight of the ghost everyone screamed and started to run away.

"I am The Box Ghost!" he yelled.

"Ghosts are real!" Sam said in part terror-part surprise when she saw the ghost.

"Beware!" The Box Ghost shouted.

Tucker was so scared out of his mind he had forgotten that Danny had certain powers that could be used to kick a certain ghost's butt. "Come on," he said grabbing Sam's hand. "Let's get out of here!"

"Tuck, wait! You're going in the wrong direction!" Danny yelled, but it was too late.

The Box Ghost had brought his hands up into the air along with fifteen odd boxes from the local dumpster and settled them down around Sam and Tucker, creating a sort of cage. They tried to kick the boxes down, but The Box Ghost seemed to have some force field around it.

"Ha, ha!" The Box Ghost laughed. "Now that I, The Box Ghost, have trapped you in this square cage composed mainly of cardboard boxes, I can take my corrugated cardboard vengeance on you!" he said pointing his finger squarely at Danny.

"Me," Danny whimpered, "what have I done to you?"

"Uhh," he replied at a loss for words before he suddenly began to laugh maniacally, or made an attempt to laugh maniacally at least.

"Danny, help!" Sam and Tucker yelled from inside.

Danny looked over at the makeshift cage holding his friends. There was a large gap, the size of someone's head, right in the center and Sam was looking out of it directly at him. If he were to change she would find out about him, but if he didn't—Danny didn't even want to think about what would happen.

Danny glared at The Box Ghost with clenched fists. "I'm going ghost!" he screamed.

Once again the blue-silver rings appeared around his middle and traveled in opposite directions up and down his body. Sam covered her mouth in shock seeing her best friend turn into the Phantom.

Danny flew towards the ghost and threw him into the pile of boxes, taking the force field down and knocking the boxes off of Sam and Tucker. The Box Ghost looked at the fifteen odd crushed boxes, then at Sam and Tucker, and then at Danny.

He lifted up his hands in an almost threatening way. "Beware!" he said and then quickly flew off and disappeared.

"That was easy," Danny said as he looked in the direction the ghost had just gone. He looked over at Sam who was staring at him with slack jaw. "This won't be, though."

The blue-white light traveled up and down his body and he returned to normal. Danny slowly walked over to Sam. She was looking at him with a mix of terror and wonder.

"Sam, please don't freak out," he pleaded.

She just gawked at him. "I don't think 'freaked' begins to cover this." She paused for a moment. "Who are you?"

"I'm Danny, you're friend."

Sam shook her head in disbelief. "No, you're not."

Tucker put a hand on her shoulder. "Actually, he is."

She turned to Tucker with wide eyes. "You knew?"

"Yeah, I'm his best friend."

"And what am I chopped liver!" she yelled sarcastically.

"I was thinking more of a turfwich," Danny replied.

Sam turned to look at Danny. There were so many things going on in her eyes. There was excitement, wonderment, and relief, but there was also confusion, hurt, and terror. Danny stepped closer to her to touch her arm, but she flinched at his touch and moved backwards.

"What are you?"

"I'm part ghost," he managed to say without his voice breaking.

"I'll tell you what you are. You're a monster!" she said pointing to Danny, ready to leap on him.

Tucker grabbed her by the arms, trying to hold back the struggling Sam. "Sam, what are you doing? Why are you acting like this? This is Danny, our friend. He's just a little… different."

Sam's eyes were glazed over with what were obviously the beginnings of tears. "If you're my friend, then why didn't you tell me? Aren't friends supposed to tell friends everything? Especially something this big? You told Tucker!"

There was the reason for her sudden outburst.

"Look, Sam," Danny tried to explain to his friend, "both you and Tucker are my best friends, but I didn't want to tell you, because I didn't know what you were going to think of me; I was afraid you were going to act like this."

Sam flinched involuntarily. She wiped the tears away that were slowly making their way down her cheeks and then she bowed her head in shame. She relaxed, allowing Tucker to let her go. "I'm sorry, Danny. It's just I feel like a used rag doll. It's always you and Tucker. I want to be part of everything, too!"

Danny and Tucker were shocked at her feelings.

"Why didn't you tell us?" asked Tucker.

A tear rolled down her cheek. "Because I didn't want to ruin all of your fun. You're my best friends and you deserve it and I didn't want to be the one to break you two up," she replied with a small sniff, and then a second later she let out mirthless laugh, "Great, now you both probably think I'm a shallow witch and are just going to toss me aside like spoiled milk," she replied glumly as she slunk to the ground and leaned her elbows on her folded legs, her hands cradling the sides of her head.

Danny and Tucker knelt down beside her in a comforting way. "Since when have you had an expiration date that we'd just toss you aside?" asked Danny with a smile.

Sam smiled back weakly. "Never?" she said in a questioning way.

"Right," responded Tucker, "And why don't we keep it that way."

She nodded her head and looked up to see their smiling faces. She turned to Danny with a smile still on her face, but then the smile suddenly fell away.

"What?" he asked alarmed, thinking she was going to have another outburst.

She paused for a moment, but then said, "Everything that happened back there, that was all… real?"

"Yep," Danny replied breathing a little lighter.

"This is really weird," she said still in disbelief.

"But cool," Tucker added.

She nodded her head. "He does have a point there."

"Now, there's the old Sam," Danny responded.

Sam just smiled at him with a roll of her eyes. "I'm really sorry for spazing out there, you guys," she said, apologizing once again. "I don't know what came over me."

"We'll just say it was that time of the month," Tucker grinned at her mischievously.

Tucker and Danny then broke down and snorted in mirth at the hilarity of it all.

"Tucker," she snarled as she raised her fist menacingly.

"Ok, I'm sorry," he answered in between silent fits of laughter.

Sam just growled at him with narrowed eyes.

"Look, Sam," Danny said after he had managed to stop laughing, "You don't have to apologize. It's kind of our fault anyway that this happened. I mean, we were keeping you out of a lot of things."

"Things?" Sam asked with a raised eyebrow, "As in more than one?"

Danny involuntarily cringed and gulped.

"So, other than the ghost thing, what else would you two like to tell me?" she asked the two guilty looking boys in front of her.

They both glanced around worriedly, looking for a means of escape. "Wow! Is that the bell I hear!" Danny exclaimed nervously, cupping a hand around his ear, pretending to hear the nonexistent bell.

"Why, I think it is!" responded Tucker as the two began to sprint full out towards the building.

"Hold it right there!" Sam yelled heatedly.

Danny and Tucker knew they should listen to her or they would end up facing the consequences later. They both turned around slowly, but they were only met with Sam's smiling face.

"So, Danny, you gonna show me what you can do or what?" she asked with one arched eyebrow.

Danny smiled back. His eyes suddenly turned ghostly green and then the flash of light came. Sam and Tucker jumped back startled, but calmed down after a second. Even though they knew, it was hard to get used to it. Danny briefly showed them all of his powers, but then the bell rang and he fell to the ground in his normal state.

"Still working on that," he said rubbing the back of his neck.

Tucker and Sam smiled at him and helped him off the ground.

"So, who else knows?" asked Sam.

"Just you guys. And I'd like to keep it that way," he added.

"Don't worry, man. We won't tell anyone. Right, Sam?" responded Tucker.

There were a few moments of silence.

"Sam?" Danny asked, starting to get worried.

"I don't know. I could get a lot of money and become really famous," she replied thoughtfully.

The two boys stared at her with wide eyes.

"What? I'm just thinking," she said as she put a finger to her chin in thought and began walking away.

Danny and Tucker glanced at each other and then towards the retreating Sam. "Uh, Sam," Danny started.

"Don't worry, Danny. I'm not gonna tell anyone. Did you really think I would?" she smiled as she took a few steps back towards them.

"No," he answered truthfully with a shake of his head.

Danny then sighed in relief and then without warning began to laugh.

Sam raised an eyebrow. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing," he said. "It's just that I thought my life was weird before when I was a normal kid."

"Haven't you learned anything Danny?" Tucker said. "Life is never normal."

The three friends, one Goth girl, one techno geek, and one ghost, took off for their next class.

* * *

Now, I know I'm not the best writer in the world, but I really hope you guys enjoyed it! I sure enjoyed writing it! So, once again, thanks for all the wonderful reviews! Lata!


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